


date night alright

by lochTenderness (theseourbodies)



Category: Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Dates, KNB Post-Canon, Kuroko just likes to go watch sports ok, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25692769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/lochTenderness
Summary: After they graduate, Kuroko ropes Kagami into going to watch the volleyball national tournament. Three years later, there's a new team representing Miyagi prefecture.
Relationships: Kagami Taiga/Kuroko Tetsuya
Comments: 3
Kudos: 99





	date night alright

**Author's Note:**

> Kuroko just likes watching team sports ok.
> 
> Some outsider POV on some familiar faces; might expand this but it's just a short one shot for now while I'm on this wild HQ!! kick

It starts like most of Kuroko’s invitations to go on a date start: with a normal statement offered blandly over breakfast. 

"Today I thought we could go to the stadium."   
  
"No one's playing, though, it's the off season?"   
  
"No, I meant we should go and watch the men's volleyball national preliminaries."   
  
"...Or we could do literally anything else," Kagami says slowly. It’s not often that he nixes date ideas, but this is weird, even for them.   
  
Kuroko is undeterred. "I went last year, and it was very rewarding."   
  
"Kuroko, you and I play basketball, do you remember that? Have you ever even held a volleyball?"   
  
"I didn't say I wanted to analyze the game, I just said that I would like to go."   
  
"With me?"   
  
"Yes, with Kagami-kun."   
  
"...Is this about that time I asked to meet you at Majiburger as a date, because you said it was fine."   
  
"It _was_ fine. Kagami-kun and I go on dates for burgers all the time. This is not a punishment, I genuinely enjoyed the experience last year and I thought it might be nice to share it."   
  
"Volleyball?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Fine. Fine! But we're hitting up that weird fusion taco place afterwards and I'm not letting you eat anything with a fork."   
  
"Deal."   
  
\---  
  
The most surprising thing about living with Kuroko was that he was a sports fan in general. He had no team loyalties really, beyond the obvious, but when he was alone and had the urge to turn the TV on, nine times out of ten he would have some game or another playing when Kagami walked in-- baseball and soccer, basketball, of course, and weirder stuff too, like lacrosse. And apparently, volleyball.   
  
The crowds are huge when they reach the stadium-- dozens of flags flutter tall and proud along the walk up to the main arena doors, their colors matching up occasionally to clusters of kids in team jackets filtering in and out of the stadium doors. Some are clearly just arriving; some have clearly just won, buzzing with left over adrenaline and bright looks in their eyes. Some clearly have not won, and no matter the game, Kagami recognizes that look as universal.   
  
Basketball is such a huge deal in the States (and such a huge deal to Kagami,) that Kagami sometimes forgets that it's not a big deal everywhere else. But basketball tournaments in Japan aren't ever anything like this, people queued up out of open banks of doorways to find seats in a packed stadium just to watch some kids play volleyball, of all things. Kagami steps out of the way of a girl in a tracksuit as she sprints towards the stadium, gasping an apology as she almost side-swipes him; he's grinning, he realizes, already caught up in the energy of the crowds. They're not even inside yet and he's more excited than he thought he would be. He can see exactly why Kuroko liked this enough to come back; even when the energy isn't directed directly at you as a player on the court, it's infectious.  
  
\---  
  
Volleyball players are apparently usually tall, which is pretty sweet. It's nice to walk into the crowded atrium and not immediately be the tallest person in a half-mile radius. Clusters of players-- big or small, depending on the size of the club-- shift around them, coming together in reunions and then breaking apart into distinct groups again. If there are obvious rivalries, he can't sense them immediately, which is surprisingly nice. Having spent the last three years of his life as a dark horse team sharing brackets with well-established powerhouse schools and programs, Kagami's used to a lot more general distance between team groups if not obvious dislike. Playing with people like Kuroko and Kiyoshi was polarizing; they made more rivals than they made casual friends.   
  
There are teams out of the four courts inside the stadium already when he and Kuroko wind their way to the stands. Some of them are playing, some of them are warming up, and Kagami is so completely ignorant of the sport that he can't immediately tell the difference. They grab seats close to the two center courts with enough empty seats around them to be comfortable-- the stadium seats are still stadium seats, unconcerned about the relative size of the people that will use them most, and Kagami needs room to stretch. Kuroko's got his game face on and a packed backpack of lunches and snacks; they'll be here for a while, which is a guarantee that Kagami's going to need that extra space.

  
A game starts in front of them, marked obviously by the two teams lining the far edges of one of the courts, and Kagami sinks into his seat a little so Kuroko can give him a brief outline of the game and then start on a play by play. It's nice, nicer than Kagami thought it would be, not least because Kuroko uses the running commentary as an excuse to press his shoulder into Kagami and lean over to talk into his ear. Before Kagami picked up his apartment's lease from his dad and asked Kuroko to move in with him, he hadn't known that Kuroko could be passionate about things beside basketball or his friends, but he was. He liked all sports just on principle, and he liked watching them. Like the familiar sounds of a full stadium, his excitement is just as catching. Kagami settles down further in his seat, presses his knee subtly to Kuroko's and lets himself get caught up in Kuroko's pace.  
  
\---  
  
They spend three hours just watching prelims, but it feels like less time than that. Kagami still doesn't understand shit about the game besides the bare basics, but it was fun to sit and watch. Watching Kuroko try and fail to neatly eat the closest thing to street tacos he’s been able to find here afterward is just icing on the cake.   
  
That's the first year they go together; three years later, it's become something of a tradition.

\---

This year, like the last three years, Kuroko quietly insists on going to watch the national competition when it makes its way to finals in Tokyo. Kagami privately thinks he just likes going because a few of the kids playing are just as freaky as the Generation of Miracles were, and Kuroko feels nostalgic more often than he admits. One kid that they’ve seen consistently is from a Tokyo school; he has streaky grey hair that he styles up and back into two points. It’s very… distinctive. A guy on another team, from Miyagi prefecture, has bright red hair that sticks straight up like a broom. Kagami’s never shared this theory with Kuroko, of course; he just always leaves the stadium at the end of rounds vaguely glad that none of Kuroko’s friends had particularly liked hair gel.   
  
Volleyball, for Kagami, sits somewhere on a scale of enjoyability in between basketball and baseball, the most boring sport Kagami has ever been forced to watch, but even he can appreciate the athleticism. The kid with the horns has a slam—spike?—that echoes when the ball hits the court, and yeah, Kagami can appreciate that. After a few years, he’s even got teams he keeps an eye on—the team from Miyagi with red-broom-head usually draws his attention, but Kagami feels like that’s just the way it is when a team like Shiratorizawa plays. If horn-head has a spike that echoes, the huge boy anchoring Shiratorizawa has a spike that booms. Kagami’s a simple guy, and spikes are like dunks to him; he secretly thinks they’re the only plays that really matter.   
  
Kuroko keeps an eye on the horn kid’s team, and a few of the brighter stars that struggle up through the regional competitions year after year. But Kuroko’s also always loved an underdog; as soon as Kagami realizes that the representative team from Miyagi is different this year, he knows exactly who Kuroko will be watching. After seeing them, he’s doubly sure. All lined up, they’re comically small next to their competition—Kagami thinks even the tallest guy on the team might be Kise’s height, but no taller. And one of them has bright orange hair; another sports of flicker of blonde right over his forehead like a candle flame. A weird, shrimpy underdog—that was just Kuroko’s style. Kagami huffs to himself and settles back into his seat; beside him, he can tell that Kuroko’s already seen—Torino? Karasuno?—the oddball team.   
  
Almost on cue, Kuroko murmurs, “It will be a good tournament this year.” He’s got that familiar gleam in his eye, and Kagami can’t help but smirk. 


End file.
